The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced a new project to promote sustainable cocoa and coffee production in Indonesia with the involvement of multinational partners which include The Hershey Company, Rikolto, ofi’s Indonesian unit, PT Olam Indonesia and the Indonesian government.
The Landscape Approach to Sustainable and Climate Change Resilient Cocoa and Coffee Agroforestry (LASCARCOCO) project is a US$8.2 million joint investment from the partners that will aim to assist 6,500 cocoa and coffee farmers in increasing their yields by 25% while conserving 14,000 hectares of the watershed and riparian buffers by 2025.
Global climate change has affected crop cultivation and small stakeholders need the support to adapt to the new environmental challenges. The new initiative is one of 6 existing projects with an accumulated investment of US$50 million that USAID, ofi, and other partners are jointly implementing to help farmers be responsible stewards of their environment.
The LASCARCOCO project will work towards:
- Improving sustainable livelihoods through training on Good Agricultural Practices and climate-smart agroforestry, where cocoa and coffee are grown alongside other income-generating crops.
- Promoting climate-friendly landscape management to enhance smallholders’ and local communities’ awareness, capacity, and involvement in climate change adaptation.
- Creating transparent and traceable supply chains with all farmers registered on ofi’s OFIS app, providing complete visibility of the environmental and social credentials of the cocoa and coffee from the project.
- Building an evidence-based blueprint for scaling up agroforestry techniques.
Without the proper support, smallholders cannot grow enough to support global needs which will eventually translate to shortage of coffee and chocolate to meet global demand.
